187 (1997) **

Samuel L.Jackson plays a Dirty Harry with a teaching certificate. Kevin Reynolds, the grossly underrated, brilliant director of such expensive classics as "Rapa-Nui" and "Waterworld", returns to low-budget filmmaking, and the results are mostly disappointing. This film proves that Reynolds is a masterful stylist, capable of handling any material in a fresh and inventive way. But it also proves that he should be more picky with scripts - this must be Hollywood's 187th film about a sir with love standing, delivering and leaning on blackboards while substituting for dangerous minds in high school jungles. "187" is gritty and realistic, but so somber, it's dull. It would have worked better as a black comedy a la Tarantino.